Insurmountable Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published April 30, 2021 · Updated May 2, 2021

Confront various terrains as a lonely mountaineer and endure the countless dangers of climbing! Many tough decisions await you in a risky environment. Make your way up and down the mountain, overcoming insurmountable heights, Welcome to our Insurmountable review.

Pros:

Decent graphics.
3.18GB Download size.
Steam achievements.
Graphics-Resolution, fullscreen, and graphic preset.
3 Mountaineers- Adventurer, Scientist, and Journalist.
Each mountaineer starts with unique items.
There are 3 difficulties-normal, difficult and Insurmountable.
You have 3 mountain ranges to play on.
3 routes for each mountain range.
A tutorial pop-up menu with slides.
Gameplays out on an almost game board like mountain whereby you choose hexagons to walk around, events can trigger and icons show.
Full camera control. Can move it around and zoom in and out.
Level up and choose from 3 upgrades every time.
Every action uses energy.
Day/night cycle.
Weather and temperatures play a huge part in the game with regard to energy levels.
Earn and use abilities that work for X amount of time and take X amount of time to recharge.
Points of interest will have icons.
Interactions/encounters will present a text description and a selection of replies/actions.
Play how you want.
Simple controls-left click to accept and right-click to cancel.
A trial will go down to show the path you are walking/climbing and can be stopped and changed at any time.
Mechanics at play are oxygen, energy, temperature, and sanity.
Compass and clock showing the day/night timings.
Height- shows how far you have gone and what the death zone height is.
Death zone-when you enter the Death Zone your oxygen levels will start to go down in addition to this you will start to lose health.
Hud is clear with a hover over it for text pop-up.
Rest at any point you can pitch up a tent and do a short or long sleep. This will help recover energy.
Weather and time of day factor into what benefits and negatives you get from sleeping.
Icons will pop up when making a route to show if it’s dangerous, any places of interest, furthermore it will show if you have enough energy to actually complete the route.
Random encounters.
Gear-you can equip different gear and each piece has unique abilities and buffs.
Keyboard shortcuts are available or you can just use a mouse to control the game.
Speed up animations button.
Every run is randomized.
End of a run breakdown showing how many summits you reached, days played, difficulty, equipment, skills, and a score.

Insurmountable Review (Steam)

Cons:

Basic graphic settings.
Only normal difficulty unlocked at the start.
No controller support.
A lot to take in.
Using the camera in raised terrain areas is a real pain.
Very slow-paced.
Repeats encounter a lot.
No way to rebind controls.
Doesn’t tell you the unlock conditions for other routes and mountains.
Hard to read the mountain for a way to the top.

Insurmountable Review (Steam)

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
8/10

Sound - 8/10
7/10

Accessibility - 7/10
9/10

Length - 9/10
8/10

Fun Factor - 8/10

8/10

Summary

Insurmountable is a game that makes perfect sense. A roguelike where you scale huge mountains, random events, and interactions make this such an enticing offering. Get into the game and I do really like it, the game world is made up of hexagonal tiles and you can plot a route, use up your energy, and off you go. As the terrain changes and the verticality of cliffs get ever bigger, the energy consumption will change. You can set up camp at any time to regain energy but you may well lose Temperature or oxygen as again it depends if you use a tent, a cave or if it’s night or day, clear or bad weather. The game is very absolute with its mechanics. You yourself only need to plan routes, choose encounter interactions, and the general item management, everything else is down to RNG and mechanic meters. It’s a fantastic game but even with the fast forward button, it is still very slow-paced. Camera control is messy when you get higher as it’s harder to see exact locations and when you are managing resources and vitals it’s less than ideal. I managed to do a few successful runs and it’s alright but I never felt any sort of accomplishment for reaching the tip, the lack of any wow factor or rewards left it kinda empty, mix that in with every run feeling the same in terms of encounters and icons and felt like I never saw new encounters. For what is there it is good and fun can definitely be had, I just wanted a bit more, a bit more customizable options, and have the encounters be a bit more varied. Put it this way, I would never deter someone from getting the game but I would say set your expectations down.